Rob Bell, founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan is considered one of this generation’s ‘cool’ emerging leaders. Sadly Rob Bell is little more than an emerging apostate.. [Read More], who said, not so long ago...

“For a mind-blowing introduction to emergence theory and divine creativity, set aside three months and read Ken Wilber’s A Brief History of Everything.” [Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, 192, endnote 143]

And what is this book that Rob Bell would have his readers study.. Sadly it is little more than what one reviewer on Amazon called “preaching ignorance to the ignorant”. Here is what this ‘mind-blowing introduction to divine creativity’ actually believes.. [Emphasis Added]

And yet "For Wilber, the ultimate reality is the Kosmos, not just the cosmos"... and believes that "the Big Bang brought everything into existence from nothing, yet rejects the teachings of "religious creationists" who find in this evidence for the biblical deity. Instead he views the source of the Kosmos as "Emptiness", which is "unbounded and unqualifiable" (27; see also 133). Wilber takes the mystical experience of Emptiness to be the highest state of consciousness. In this state, the subject-object relationship drops out and one realizes that he or she is one with the non-dual reality. At several points, Wilber claims the nature of this state is both the ground and goal of evolution (43,104, 120, 339)."" [Douglas Groothuis. Critiques of A Brief History of Everything.]

In one place Wilber says..

"So we have some very popular theorists who, tired of the burdens of postconventional and world-centric rational perspectivism, recommend a regressive slide into egocentric vital impulsive polymorphous phantasmic emotional revival."

English anyone?

While Ken Wilber is entitled to believe what ever he wants to, regardless of how far off track, for a Christian pastor to actually recommend one of Wilber’s books to his readers is reprehensible to say the very least. But then it is exceedingly difficult to apply the word Christian to Rob Bell.

Ken Wilbur… In His Own WordsSo who is Ken Wilbur? According to Wikipedia, he “is an American author who writes on psychology, philosophy, mysticism, ecology, and spiritual evolution”. Often called the “most comprehensive philosophical thinker of our times”, Wilber is the author of over a dozen books, including Sex, Ecology, Spirituality; A Brief History of Everything;The Spectrum of Consciousness; Up from Eden; and Grace and Grit. His book The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion is endorsed on the front cover by Deepak Chopra, who says

“Ken Wilber is one of the most important pioneers in the field of consciousness in this country. I regard him as my mentor. He is the source of inspiration and insight to all of us. Read everything he writes -- it will change your life.” Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Shambhala Publications [Shambhala is a Sanskrit term meaning "place of peace/tranquility/happiness"] says he is

“Credited with developing a unified field theory of consciousness—a synthesis and interpretation of the world's great psychological, philosophical, and spiritual traditions—Ken Wilber is the most cogent and penetrating voice in the recent emergence of a uniquely American wisdom”. [http://wilber.shambhala.com/]

In a September 1996 interview with Robin Kornman of the Shambhala Sun entitled The Kosmos According to Ken Wilber, he described himself as being…

“…a longtime practicing Buddhist, and many of the key ideas in my approach are Buddhist or Buddhist inspired. First and foremost, Nagarjuna and Madhyamika philosophy: pure Emptiness and primordial purity is the “central philosophy” of my approach as well.”

In the same interview he also spoke of his then recent books Sex, Ecology, Spirituality and A Brief History of Everything, saying in part that he wrote the book for the “not-so-common people” …

“more for anybody who is looking for something like an overall world philosophy, an approach to consciousness and history that takes the best of the East and the West into account, and attempts to honor them both”.

When asked what effect he hoped to have and what can knowing his philosophy could do for the advancement of consciousness, he replied …

Not very much, frankly. Each of us still has to find a genuine contemplative practice-maybe yoga, maybe Zen, maybe Shambhala Training, maybe contemplative prayer, or any number or authentic transformative practices. That is what advances consciousness, not my linguistic chitchat and book junk. But if you want to know how your particular practices fit with the other approaches to truth that are out there, then these books will help you get started. They offer one map of how things fit together, that's all. But none of this will substitute for practice. [http://www.shambhalasun.com:80/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2059]

I find the above statement interesting.. In it Ken Wilber talks about “other approaches to truth”, in other words conceding that there is a truth. But what is that truth? And if there are various approaches to it, how can one possibly know when one has encountered it. And how does he or anyone else like him disprove the possibility that ONE OF THE paths is right... that one of them contains absolute truth...Remembering that truth is NOT subjective.

SeeThe Case For ChristianityIt is tragically true that few of those who believe 'all spiritual beliefs are valid paths to God" seem to have made an in depth study of various religions to see if their claims are based on fact, or fairy dust.There is far more evidence in favor of the Bible being true, than there is for any of the other 'holy books' like the Qur’an, the Bhagavad-Gita, the writings of Confucius, or the Book of Mormon. This evidence includes it's humanly impossible authorship, it's candor about the faults and failings of it's main characters, fulfilled prophecy, and it's archaeological and scientific accuracy... none of which are seen in the books of other religions. inclusivistic language. But down underneath it believes that the only way is to deny there is an only way.

Ken Wilbur and John 10In the above mentioned interview, Wilber proves himself a classic example of someone who twists the plain meaning of Scripture to conform to their philosophical outlook. He (as do countless others) lights on one short verse in Scripture, with no regard to the context, or what is said in the verses immediately preceding or following and uses it to reinforce one aspect of his cherished illusions. Wilber says…

“Imagine if, the very day Buddha attained his enlightenment, he was taken out and hanged precisely because of his realization. and if any of his followers claimed to have the same realization, they were also hanged. Speaking for myself, I would find this something of a disincentive to practice.

But that's exactly what happened with Jesus of Nazareth. "Why do you stone me?" he asks at one point. "Is it for good deeds?" And the crowd responds, "No, it is because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God." The individual Atman is not allowed to realize that it is one with Brahman. "I and my Father are One"-among other complicated factors that realization got this gentleman crucified.

The reasons for this are involved, but the fact remains: as soon as any spiritual practitioner began to get too close to the realization that Atman and Brahman are one-that one's own mind is intrinsically one with primordial Spirit-then frighteningly severe repercussions usually followed”.

[Primordial: existing at or from the beginning of time]

In the above quote, Wilber is referring to John 10:30-33. The crowd wanted to stone Jesus for His claim in John 10:30, that He and the Father were one.

In Scripture, the word translated “one” is not in the masculine, but in the neuter gender. Since it expresses union, but not the precise nature of the union, the particular kind intended has to be inferred from the context. Jesus had just affirmed in the previous two verses that he was able to rescue and keep his people from all enemies, a power superior to men and exactly the same as that of the Father. Our Lord first says of Himself, ‘I give unto my sheep eternal life, and none shall pluck them out of my hand.’ He then says the same thing of the Father—‘None is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.’ He plainly, then, ascribes the same thing to Himself that He does to the Father, the same work of power, therefore the same power. He mentions the reason why none can pluck them out of the Father’s hands,—because He is the Almighty, and no created power is able to resist Him… “I and the Father are one”.

That the Lord Jesus was the One that the prophets announced should come, had been abundantly attested by His person, His life, and His “many good works” (what we call miracles). His "works" were an essential part of His credentials, as is clear from Luke 7:19-23:

When Jesus said “I and the Father are one”, had the Jews understood him as only as saying he had a unity with the Father, they would not have considered him a blasphemer; because in this sense Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, and all the prophets, were one with God. But what irritated them so much was that they understood him as speaking of a unity of nature. Therefore they say here, thou makest thyself God; which word they understood, not in a figurative, metaphorical, or improper sense, but in the most literal meaning of the term, not that that ‘His own mind was intrinsically one with primordial Spirit’.

In any case just a few verses later (in verse 36) Jesus answers the charge made against him by saying that it is not He that makes himself God, but it is the Father that makes him out to be God. It was the Father that sanctified and sent Him into the world.

Not exactly the same situation as ‘the individual Atman not being allowed to realize that it is one with Brahman’ which Wilber wishes were true. In spite of all their claims to be connected to the Divine, none of those individual Atmans can make the blind see, the lame walk or the dead come back to life. None have been sent into the world by the Father.

Besides which, God tells us in Isaiah 55: 8-9

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts”.

Ken Wilber and Adi Da (formerly Da Free John).

Ken Wilber was, not so long ago, zealously promoting the works of Adi Da, but when tales of sexual exploitation, financial greed, deceit etc. began to make the rounds (top-level defectors tell stories of drunken sex orgies and a former devotee accuses the Marin-based sect of brainwashing, sexual assault and turning her into a "household slave"), Wilber warned that although Da Free John was an enlightened being, it was better to stay away from the commune.. although not “in any way” abandoning his “love and devotion for Him”. [http://www.beezone.com/Wilber/ken_wilbers_letter.html]

The following is an excerpt from Ken Wilber's review of Da Free John’s book.. The Dawn Horse Testament (1985 edition) :

"The Dawn Horse Testament is the most ecstatic, most profound, most complete, most radical, and most comprehensive single spiritual text ever to be penned and confessed by the Human Transcendental Spirit…. I ask my friends, my students, my readers, even my casual acquaintances, to see and recognize and — above all — confess the Realization that Master Da is… Read this Man, Listen to this Man, Hear this Man, then See Him. And then, I think, you will stand Smiling. What else do you really want? What else can I say? " [http://www.beezone.com/Wilber/ken_wilbur_praise.html]

The claim has been made that Wilber developed his own stages of development from Da's "seven stages of life", which of course bring us to the question of who is Da Free John?

Often referred to as a “meglomaniacal cult leader” (a description that seems fairly close to the truth), Da John, (Originally called Franklin Albert Jones) claimed to have miraculous powers and to be the avatar for our age. The following are a few excerpts from the April 5, 1985, San Francisco Examiner article… Hypnotic Da Free John -- Svengali of the truth-seeking set By Don Lattin. [All Emphasis Added]

“There's something about Franklin Albert Jones that makes men turn over their wives, millionaires open up their bank accounts and truth-seekers bare their souls.

For 13 years he has quietly attracted a following of more than a thousand devotees, including wealthy benefactors who have bought him a California hot springs resort, a Hawaiian paradise and his own Fijian island…

… "But he has a fatal flaw -- his own narcissism. He creates a system of attachment to him that is not spiritual. It's very temporal."

Scientology

“a San Francisco business consultant, knew Franklin Jones before he declared himself "the Living Truth, the Way of Salvation and the Eternal master of Men." They met at a Scientology workshop in San Francisco in 1968”.

LSD

…”During his years at Stanford, Jones wrote in his book "The Knee of Understanding," his experimentation with LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs led him toward a "simple, direct and unqualified free awareness." Before the 1968 Scientology workshop, Jones had just gotten back from the India ashram of the late Swami Muktananda Paramhansa. After completing the Scientology course, Lucania said, he and Jones formed a pact to continue their spiritual journey…

Hindu Temples andIncarnation of God?(Jones' one time closest friend and confidant was a man called Lucania)

"At this point, I think he really thinks he is God," Lucania said. "If you had every whim indulged for 13 years, how would you think of yourself?"

…” At this point, Lucania said, Franklin Albert Jones began to think of himself as an incarnation of God. While meditating in a small Hindu temple in Hollywood in 1970, Lucania said, Jones "went through an experience where there was no experience whatsoever."

Alcohol Sex and Drugs

“In 1972, when the guru was still calling himself Franklin Jones, Lucania said he gave Jones $8,000 so they could open the Ashram Bookstore on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The first devotees, many of them street people, began showing up.

Within a year, Lucania said, the austere lifestyle had given way to the wild parties and wife-swapping that has given Jones his sudden notoriety as Da Free John.

According to his writings, the guru's parties were merely one step along the spiritual path. This is the explanation given in "The Four Fundamental Questions," an official summary of the guru's teaching…”

… “Jones reportedly has nine wives, including a former Playboy playmate of the month. Former devotees say he takes a keen interest in the sex lives of his followers.

“The underlying spiritual message and the transmitting medium who conveys it, though related, are two distinct entities. To confuse the two betrays the fact that a corrupt religious group can present genuine teachings, or, that an authentic spiritual discourse can have an illegitimate expression” [Exposing Cults: When The Skeptical Mind Confronts The Mystical. David C. Lane. http://www.geocities.com/eckcult/cultexpose/dafree.html]

But God does not agree..

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "So then, you will know them by their fruits.

[Matthew 7:16-20]

Ken Wilbur and Neale Donald Walsh: A February 17, 2008, posting on Ken Wilber’s blog talks of an interview he conducted with Neale Donald Walsch, whom Wilber calls “oneof God’s most well-known mouth pieces in the modern world”. And “… a modern day spiritual messenger who’s nine Conversations With God books and sixteen additional books on a contemporary understanding of God have touched millions of lives around the globe”.

[That Walsch’s books have touched millions of lives around the globe, is probably true as he is one of the world’s leading New Age authors].

In this interview Wilber and Walsch speak of “stages” of enlightenment taking place in individuals and society… that there also might be some developmental issues involved here… in terms of the extent to which they can apply this knowledge …they move from being, “ego-centric”, to “ethno-centric” to “world-centric”, an issue which appears to “be around the world”. [http://www.kenwilber.com/blog/show/423]

Which makes one wonder if this “world-centric” is any different from, or another step towards, what some call a change in global consciousness at a planetary level, or as Eckhart Tolle puts it.. “awakening of humanity and the arising of a new earth” … “the next step in human evolution”. [Read Oprah’s New Earth]

Ken Wilbur and The Integral InstituteThe home page of the Integral Institute, says “The Institute’s roots lie in the work of philosopher Ken Wilber, generally regarded as the world’s most influential Integral thinker” [http://www.integralinstitute.org/?q=node/1]

And [Emphasis Added]

“Integral theory is an all-inclusive framework that draws on the key insights of the world’s greatest knowledge traditions. The awareness gained from drawing on all truths and perspectives allows the Integral thinker to bring new depth, clarity and compassion to every level of human endeavor — from unlocking individual potential to finding new approaches to global-scale problems”. [http://www.integralinstitute.org/]

Ken Wilber, Integral and Zen master Genpo RoshiAnd who is Genpo Roshi? According to his site, he

“is a man who has accomplished over 35 years of Zen meditation practice, a man who’s a certified Zen Master. He’s also been a champion athlete, and is a devoted husband and father, a successful businessperson, and the respected author of five books. He is the creator of the Big Mind/Big Heart approach, and is the Founder and Abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center and Kanzeon Sangha International. His whole adult life has been dedicated to raising consciousness” [http://www.genpo.org/Home.html]

In speaking about Big Mind/Big Heart, Zen master Genpo Roshi says

“We all have questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives and about how to get the most out of life. The Big Mind Big Heart approach will show you how to answer these questions for yourself, for what’s true”. [http://www.genpo.org/Home.html]

A very striking point about the above comment is that, sure everyone has questions about “ the meaning and purpose of our lives and about how to get the most out of life”, but most people seem to forget that even a meaningful life, full of purpose, is very very short.. A mere 70-80 years, if you are lucky and not hit by a bus tomorrow morning. And what after that? How will your ‘meaningful life’ serve you when you are ended, annihilated, exterminated…at death. When they lower that coffin into a cold and dark hole in the ground.. Somehow it does not make sense. Or is a few year of finding ‘enlightenment’ good enough for you?

Read The Message of The BibleAsk as many people as you know what changes they would make to this world in order to make it as perfect as possible... somewhere it would be an absolute pleasure to live. I am willing to bet good money that what you will not hear is they want to attain an ineffable transcendental state. What you will hear will be more on the lines of peace and safety, an absence of crime, hunger and disease, unpolluted air and water, pesticide free food, more love among fellow men, and an honest government. Christianity, which appears to millions to be outdated, out of touch, and largely irrelevant to modern society, not only promises exactly the utopian world that mankind dreams of

As of October 12th 2008 one arm of the Integral site’s ‘featured guests’ included Genpo Roshi…

The creator of the powerful Big Mind Process, allowing anyone to experience a more universal consciousness in a relatively short amount of time. Individuals or groups are able to do so quite easily without any previous formal Zen training. It is a non-threatening technique which uses the ego instead of trying to destroy it. Genpo Roshi has established a non-profit, non-sectarian organization that brings the Big Mind Process out to the world. [http://in.integralinstitute.org/]

Ken Wilber wrote the foreword to Genpo Roshi’s book Big Mind/Big Heart, which saysin part… [Bold in Original. Underlining Added]

“Let me state this as strongly as I can: the Big Mind Process (founded by Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi) is arguably the most important and original discovery in the last two centuries of Buddhism. It is an astonishingly original, profound, and effective path for waking up, or seeing one’s True Nature. It is such a simple and universal practice it can be used in any spiritual path you wish, or even just alone, by itself, as a practice for realizing your True Nature—which you can call God, Allah, Jahweh, Brahman, Tao, Ein Sof—it doesn’t really matter, because the core of the Big Mind Process is Emptiness itself, which, having no specific content at all, can and does embrace anything that arises, integrating it all… Zen, this realization of one’s True Nature, or Ultimate Reality, is called kensho or satori (“seeing into one’s True Nature,” or discovering Big Mind and Big Heart). It often takes five years or more of extremely difficult practice (I know, I’ve done it) in order for a profound satori to occur. With the Big Mind Process, a genuine kensho can occur in about an hour—seriously. Once you get it, you can do it virtually any time you wish, and almost instantaneously. It is nothing less than the discovery of your True and Unique Self, Ultimately Reality, the Ground of All Being—again, call it what you like, for “they call it Many which is really One.”

And

read this book, or simply let it soak into you, let the words wash through you, and soon enough, that “you” will be “YOU”—which is to say, I AMness, your own True, Infinite, and Eternal Nature: “before Abraham was, I AM.” This book is truly a handbook of Awakening to I AMness, which is already looking out of your eyes right now.

He goes on to say

(We at Integral Institute have found this process to be so effective and profound, that we have made it a central part of our programs, seminars, and Integral Life Practice. [http://www.kenwilber.com/blog/show/224]

Incidentally the book was also endorsed by Neale Donald Walsch, New Age leader and author of Conversations with God, who said

“Is talking to your own Mind a ‘conversation with God’? I have often said that this is true, and now comes a book that backs up the thought. I highly recommend you not miss Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way.

And Father Thomas Keating, apostate Roman Catholic priest and author of Open Mind, Open Heart, who said..

“A book of great creativity and originality that will make a significant contribution to the East-West dialogue and to the needs of those who are attracted to move beyond seeking.” [http://www.genpo.org/Home.html]

Ken Wilber, Integral and Father Thomas KeatingAnother guest at the same time as Genpo Roshi was.... “Father Thomas Keating, The originator of Centering Prayer and one of the foremost teachers of Contemplative Christianity”.

The page devoted to Keating says

“Father Thomas Keating, a writer and teacher considered by many to be one of the few genuinely realized Christian saints in the world today, is a founding member of the Spirituality branch of Integral Institute”.

“It helps that Keating also has an unusually open-minded attitude towards the meditative practices of other traditions and has studied with spiritual teachers from a variety of Hindu and Buddhist lineages, for this lead to the creation of the Snowmass Interreligious Conference in 1982, where teachers from diverse paths meet regularly to compare notes and evaluate the successes and failures of their respective practices. Other organizations graced by the presence of Keating include the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (which sponsors exchanges between the monks and nuns of every religion), and the International Committee for Peace Council”. [http://in.integralinstitute.org/contributor.aspx?id=38]

But I guess one should not be too surprised. Keating pops up in all manner of places.. spreading his canker as he goes. [See more on Thomas Keating].

The Integral Institute records the dialogue between Father Thomas Keating and KenWilber that took place on April 24th, 2006… [Emphasis Added]

“… Ken Wilbur and Father Thomas Keating dialogued for almost 4 hours in front of a packed house at the Westin Tabor Center in Denver. About 240 people attended the event. The discussion took place around the topic of the relevance of religion in the modern/postmodern era. …

… Above all else, the dialogue had the character of two old friends sharing some sacred time and space together. The crowd was alternately in stiches [stitches] at numerous, hilarious exchanges, and silent in the face of the depth and profundity of the sharing. Reflecting on his own journey, Keating, 83, said that he honestly felt very much like a beginner to the spiritual life, before the majestic love that God Is, and commented "I can’t understand why anyone would want to get married before 50 or 60, at the earliest!" [http://in.integralinstitute.org/live/view_frthomas2.aspx]

Also, in a series of videos Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber discuss the history of Fr. Keating’s spiritual path. [http://in.integralinstitute.org/live/view_frthomas.aspx#lectio_divina]

Ken Wilber & The Spirituality of Tomorrow‘Integral Naked’ is a series of largely unedited, uncensored, live, and taped-live conversations between the most influential, provocative, and important thinkers and leaders in today's world. Many of these are moderated by Ken Wilber, considered the most influential integral thinker in the world today, and his colleagues at Integral Institute.

One of these videos (2007) featuring both Ken Wilber and Thomas Keating is called The Spirituality of Tomorrow and can be seen onYouTube, where the “more info” says

“We were enormously blessed to host a dialogue with Fr. Thomas and Ken Wilber in April of 2006. In today's featured video, Ken presents some of the foundational concepts of Integral spirituality”.

It only shows the level of Thomas Keating’s apostasy, for him to sit and listen intently this bilge, but then Thomas Keating is yet one more of the wolves that Paul spoke about in Acts 20:29-30. [See more on Thomas Keating].

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them”..

We are certainly in no short supply of them.

>

In this 16 minute video, Ken Wilbur lights on the topic of how religion has caused more suffering “than any other man made cause on the face of the planet”. In his words

“…if you look at some of the more dogmatic forms of religion (not that dogma is bad…it has it’s place, but if you look at these types that we are calling exoteric religion or religion of myth and dogma it’s arguably the cause of more human suffering, death than any other man made cause on the face of the planet. And yet if you look at the great paths of liberation, those contemplative paths that have claimed to show men and women the doorway in the deepest part of their own consciousness to that realm which is timeless and spaceless and beyond death and pain and mortality. So on one had we have religion causing the most human suffering imaginable and on the other hand the only path out of human suffering that we know of”.

This again is a myth that has uses in an effort to prove the superiority of “contemplative paths” vs. religion. That Christians and religious groups are responsible for the greatest massacres of history are accusations and assertions that are empirically false, and, unlike some of Ken Wilber’s ideas, CAN be disproved. [See The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity? ]

Wilber then talks of the ‘stages’ of spiritual development, which is interesting as he confirms what others have said for a long long time. Religious ‘experiences” are interpreted according to the beliefs of the practitioner. Or in his scheme of things .. according to the ‘level’ of development you happen to be in. In other words.. there is no objective truth, only interpretations, which is so much horse manure. What about the possibility, which Scripture warns us about, that most people do not recognize what they are encountering, since the inhabitants of the nether regions are not only masters of deception but masters of disguise. However I doubt that this possibility will be even considered as it does not agree with their philosophy that everyone can get in touch with the Divine..

Also note that Wilber states that some one at the “mythical” level may interpret the experience as a literal figure.. Jesus or an angel. It is interesting to speculate what stage Ken Wilber is going to imagine he is at when he stands at the judgment seat of God..

“But what we do find is that you tend to interpret your religious experience according to the stage you are at… if you are at a magical level you will tend to interpret it in magical terms, if you are at a mythical level you will tend to interpret it in mythic terms. There are many people at rational stages of development that have these experiences and they tend to interpret it in very rational terms and often try to explain it away…it’s just fireworks in the brain. Somebody at the mythic level might interpret it as an encounter with a literal figure. Jesus perhaps, or one of the Bodhisattvas, or an angel”.

He then goes on to speak of those who “earlier stages of development” think “that their truth is the only truth that is actually correct”. Without actually coming out and saying it, Wilber seems to be insinuating that Christians (and possibly some others) to believe that they have the truth is only a symptom of an “earlier stage of development”. Note that there is NO testable hypothesis in what he says, only a belief system consisting of a vague doctrine of possible ‘spiritual’ progress …

“One of the definitions of these earlier stages of development is that each of those stages thinks that their truth is the only truth that is actually correct, but once you get to an integral stage you realize that all of those truths are appropriate and correct in their own place, in their own time. And so there is an attempt to try and integrate all of these different world views … so that becomes a very very important aspect in terms of trying to understand men and women’s approach to the Divine and that gives us a handle on some of these very very difficult issues and religion as a conveyer belt is basically a catechism, if you will, of the stations of life as you move from archaic to magic to mythic to rational to pearlistic to integral interpretations of the Divine. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there are levels of God but it does mean there are levels of your interpretation of God and these can be followed with quite astonishing similarity if we actually do empirical research on it”.

“….At any of these stages you can have a spiritual experience. Meditative practice is a practice in having these state experiences and the more you a spiritual and meditative experience of the Divine the more quickly you move through stages, and incidentally we have some Empirical research on that we well”.

Empirical research? The word ‘empirical’ is defined as ‘seen, factual, actual, real, verifiable, first-hand’. In the first place HOW can anyone know that the experiences are IN ANY WAY related to the Divine. Wilber himself said earlier in this same dialogue that “you tend to interpret your religious experience according to the stage you are at”. So how can anyone POSSIBLY know whether or not that his “experience of the Divine” is even real. He has NO WAY of confirming that it is in fact God or whatever he calls the Divine.

I repeat what I said earlier… “ What about the possibility that most people do not recognize what they are encountering, since the inhabitants of the nether regions are not only masters of deception but masters of disguise?” Can anyone prove that this is NOT so?

“This doesn’t mean there is no reason to belong to a particular spiritual path, there’s every reason to belong to a particular spiritual path, at the very least there is a Japanese saying “Chase two rabbits, catch neither”. And you can understand that there are many paths to the Divine, which path is best is which path is best for you. The one that helps you to move to your own fullest potential in terms of being able to open yourself to the Divine in whatever ways work for you, is the best path”.

Conflicting with Scripture that categorically states that there is only ONE path to God..

At about 12 minutes into the video Wilber starts talking about the I-Amness in each person… the old and tiresome New Age teaching that we are all God.

I am gong to ask the questions that I have asked several times on this site.. One that only shows how few people ever use any portion of their God given grey matter. .. and how many simply swallow what others spout without ever even attempting to think the matter through. What is certain is that if it sounds good, and is wrapped up in fancy phrases, the vast majority of people, who are usually very gullible, are going to swallow it hook, line and sinker.

“What has me scratching my head is what makes people think they are unrealized gods. As far as I can see they are subject to the same foibles and failures as the rest of us, the same needs and desires, even the same diseases. I am reasonably sure they bleed the same colour, and can be killed by the same well placed bullet that would fell the rest of us mere mortals. In other words.. what exactly is it that makes them gods? Can they fly, read thoughts, travel to distant planets, create something out of nothing, lay an egg? So what is all this about ‘being god’? What exactly constitutes a ‘god’?”

Snowmass ConferencesFor twenty years, a group of spiritual seekers from many religious traditions met in various places around the United States under the rubric of the Snowmass Conferences to engage in the deepest form of interreligious dialogue about the differences and similarities between their ‘paths of wisdom’

When these encounters came to an end, it was agreed that what had happened should be written down. The result was the book The Common Heart An Experience of Inter-Religious Dialogue, edited by Netanel Miles-Yepez, cofounder of The Sufi-Hasidic Fellowship and a Murshid of the Chishti-Maimuniyya Order of Dervishes. The foreword to the book was written by Ken Wilber, and says in part.. [Emphasis Added]

“In 1984, Father Thomas Keating invited a broad range of spiritual teachers from virtually all of the world’s great wisdom traditions—Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Indigenous, Islamic—to gather together at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. They kept no records, published no reports, filmed none of the proceedings. In fact, the results of that extraordinary gathering have been largely secret, until now.

The Common Heart is the first report of that meeting and several subsequent ones with the same group. It is in almost every respect a rather amazing document. First, and especially, in that it could and did happen; second, and as much, in the results, both startling and reassuring simultaneously.

A student once asked me, “Why study the tangled web of the world’s traditional religions?” The implication was that the lot of them were old, outdated, and more or less worthless; and further, they all disagreed with each other anyway, so why bother?

I replied that yes, they were “old,” and yes, they mostly disagreed with each other. “But every now and then, you find profound points of agreement between all of them. And anytime you find something that all of the world’s religions agree on, you might want to pay very, very close attention, yes?” [http://www.kenwilber.com/blog/show/144]

But of course.. both student and teacher, never once thought of the alternative. If all religions disagree with each other on major issues, then it certainly discounts the possibility that all of them are right. However it does NOT discount the possibility that ONE OF THEM is right... that one of them contains absolute truth...

SeeThe Case For ChristianityIt is tragically true that few of those who believe 'all spiritual beliefs are valid paths to God" seem to have made an in depth study of various religions to see if their claims are based on fact, or fairy dust.There is far more evidence in favor of the Bible being true, than there is for any of the other 'holy books' like the Qur’an, the Bhagavad-Gita, the writings of Confucius, or the Book of Mormon. This evidence includes it's humanly impossible authorship, it's candor about the faults and failings of it's main characters, fulfilled prophecy, and it's archaeological and scientific accuracy... none of which are seen in the books of other religions. inclusivistic language. But down underneath it believes that the only way is to deny there is an only way.

However one interesting fact spring to mind... virtually all religions have one thing in common and since according to Wilber this is cause to ”pay very, very close attention”, do so. Virtually all religions await a World Teacher or Leader... somebody that will teach people to live at peace with one another. Jews await the Messiah; Muslims, the Imam Mahdi or Messiah; Buddhists, the Fifth Buddha; and Hindus, the Lord Krishna. However there is one major difference... While the Bible does tell us that a powerful individual is on his way, it also tells us that this individual will be a man of sin ... a son of perdition... the antichrist, who will after a short reign, be destroyed by God Himself. I guess only time will tell who is right.

BTW.. Another video below on YouTube shows Wilber shutting down his brain waves in record time... While he certainly seems to be very adept at doing this, there is certainly more to this than meets the eye. See Contemplating The Alternative .. Since it is certain that, regardless of personal belief, something does transpire during mystical experiences, the question that springs to mind is what can explain this phenomena. To say it is the Holy Spirit is just so much tosh, since there is not one, not two, but seven common themes of mysticism between Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hindu and American agnostic mystical experiences.